Is It Safe To Eat Nuts During Pregnancy?

A balanced diet is important to keep up with from the very beginning to the end of our lives. Maintaining a nutritious diet daily and mostly during pregnancy is vital. Whatever you eat during pregnancy, you are actually feeding your child the same. A healthy diet will help the unborn grow slowly and steadily. There is a variety of foods that you should consider having in your daily routine while you are pregnant and there many foods to avoid during pregnancy too. If you are thinking about adding nuts during pregnancy to the diet, go for it at once – nutritional benefits of nuts are a dozen for you and your baby.

Is It Safe To Have Nuts During Pregnancy?

The question that comes to everyone’s minds is that whether the baby would be allergic to nuts or there might be any chances of developing allergies during pre natal and postnatal breastfeeding period due to eating nuts during pregnancy. There is no evidence or popular certainties that this might be necessary. Another factor to consider is if you are allergic to nuts, then it’s obvious you could consider nuts as food to avoid during pregnancy.

Does Eating Nuts During Pregnancy Add Any Nutritional Benefit?

Nuts contain naturally nutritious substances in abundance. These nutritious features are good for anyone to take and thus because of these benefits of nuts it is taken by most pregnant women. But researchers have stated that nuts being essentially healthy foods for pregnancy is preferred as well as recommended by many.

The diet balance of a pregnant woman should consist of about 5 ounces of protein daily. As per the USDA, one ounce of nuts contains 2 ounces of protein.

o They are rich sources of Vitamins A and B.

o Minerals which are essential for proper growth of the foetus, like phosphorous, potassium, zinc, selenium or copper,- are all packed plenty in the nuts.

o They are a good source of brown fat.

o If you are wondering what nuts to eat during pregnancy, you can consider peanuts, almond, cashews and walnuts adding into your plate.

o The nuts you consumed must be fresh, and not the ones that have been stored for a long time.

o If the nuts are roasted or fried, the benefits of nuts that your baby would have got are lost.

o Nuts could be a good choice to snack on to chose among foods to eat during pregnancy.

How Should Nuts Be Included In Your Daily Diet?

You can team up the nuts, some dried fruits like apricots and raisins, with a glass of homemade orange juice which will give you a snack full of good fibres. You can also stir fry up some cashews flavouring it with a little bit of salt, and a delicious boost of iron for yourself and your baby. Consider eating Vitamin-C rich vegetables like broccoli or capsicum which will enhance vitamin absorption.

You could also chop up some walnuts, add it with freshly ground linseed with your breakfast cereal or take it any time of the day with some yoghurt. This will give you quality benefits of Omega-3 fats. To add on to the benefits of nuts for you and the unborn, pair up eating the nuts with berries, yoghurt, folate-rich veggies like pumpkins or chickpeas, add in the nuts pistachio and hazelnuts.

Precautions For Eating Nuts During Pregnancy

There are huge benefits of nuts such as they are high in cholesterol and fat content. Consider eating them in their raw state most of the time. Roast or fry the nuts only as little as possible. Also, due to the same reason- consider eating it only in limited amounts. The various types of nuts are a great way to provide development to the baby with the goodness of nuts, but consider having only a handful of them each day.

It is also advisable to avoid buying packaged nuts, salted, roasted or baked as they are left with only a little bit of their natural values and rather full of preservatives and flavours to make them taste better. Consider eating organic fruits and nuts, which are more likely to be free from harmful substances, and provide you with their precious natural benefits within.

Top 4 Nuts For An Expecting Mother:

1) Walnuts

The walnut is rich in omega 3 fats which firstly are very healthy for the growing foetus in the right amounts and secondly is good for the body and its muscles. Thus The omega 3 is present in alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA, a substance that's not a very common constituent in dietary supplements. But fortunately, walnuts are full of ALA content. Omega 3 fat is a substance that the body cannot produce on its own, so you need it from your diet. Hence the walnut, packed with this vital constituent gives you a reason as to why should or why can you eat nuts during pregnancy. Moreover, walnut benefits are very essential for a pregnant woman and her baby.

2) Hazelnuts

You must consume enough quantity of folate from your diet. This substance is again such a one that is not only good for you but also for your little one growing inside you. Folate provides good immunity and cuts out chances of birth defects. A 3-ounce amount of hazelnut rich in folate content is the recommended supply for a pregnant woman's diet. Hence, the Hazelnut is yet another healthy food for pregnancy. Also, hazelnut benefits are most talked about as it has just the right amount of fibre, protein, and Vitamin E.

A serving of about 3 ounces of cashews has half amount of the daily zinc requirements of the body. Zinc is required necessarily and especially in a growing baby. A pregnant woman could have 11 milligrams of zinc in her diet for the growing baby's requirement. The benefits of cashew nuts overall make it a must-have part of an expecting mother's diet.

4) Almonds

Almonds have a good content of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats which provide growth of good cells at a healthy rate. These fats are also healthy for the heart. The benefits of eating almonds can be added by eating only a little amount of this nut as it will give you the boost of its goodness that is desired. You can chew down the tasty almonds raw, add it to your cup of yoghurt, or put in a spoonful of chopped almonds in your breakfast bowl of cereals.

Thus in order to have a complication free pregnancy and have a healthy baby, you should have a healthy diet by including nuts and having it on a daily basis during pregnancy.